Who Will Win Game 7?

Midway through the NBA playoffs, I shot one of my Miami Heat fan friends a message. “I think the Heat are in trouble,” I said. My friend acknowledged that the Heat weren’t looking so good, but stuck to his pre-series prediction. “I’m still thinking Heat in 6,” he wrote. “I’m that dumb.”

During game six, when the Spurs appeared to be on the verge of winning their fifth NBA championship, my friend sounded resigned to defeat on Facebook, referring to Tim Duncan as “the greatest player of his era,” and saying that he was showing “a kang how it’s done.” (Kang is what my friend calls LeBron.) Of course, Miami won game six in a remarkable comeback, and my guess is that they’ll win game 7, too.

I predicted that the Heat would win a second championship in seven games, but midway through this series I changed my mind and predicted that the Spurs would win in six. I thought the Heat lacked the depth to compete with the Spurs — that Dwayne Wade was too banged-up, that Chris Bosh was unreliable and soft, that Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole were simply not good enough, and that Shane Battier and Mike Miller were too old. Only LeBron looked capable of greatness, and everybody knows that even the greatest basketball players need a strong supporting cast to win a championship. But after game six, LeBron really has the teammates he needs to win. Will they show up tonight? Probably. It’s game 7, after all.

Anyway, I was happy about the Spurs and rooting for them, but I’m going to stick with my original prediction. The Heat will win this thing, because LeBron — Kang to some — is just too good.